ROPAR: The Ropar police have registered a murder case against the guilty police officials responsible for the death of Balbir Kaur, alias Balbiro, a Harijan woman, in police custody, but it has failed to arrest the culprits.
The case was registered after protests on the intervention of Ch. Jagjit Singh, minister of state for housing and urban development.
Ruldu Ram, president of the Dalit Action Committee (DAC), has charged the police with trying to shield the guilty police officials. He said that many legal loopholes were being made to weaken the case.
On the other hand, the SSP, Sanjiv Gupta, said that no name was mentioned in the FIR and hence it was difficult for the police to identify the culprits immediately, Mohinder Singh, a DSP (detective), had been deputed to investigate the case, he added.
It may be added that the SSP had ordered transfer of Om Parkash, SHO, Gurjant Singh, ASI and Didar Singh. head constable to the police lines in connection with the death of Ribeiro in police custody on July 14.
The sources said that the police was intentionally delaying the arrest of the culprits in order to facilitate anticipatory bail.
It is learnt that keen interest was shown by a senior police officer on a complaint of theft lodged by Akashay Moudgill, SDO in PSEB, alleging that the deceased had stolen valuable household goods. The interrogation team was directed to trace the theft within two hours which resulted in use of excessive force against the deceased. The postmortem report had identified 13 injuries on the body of Balbiro.
Meanwhile, Adarsh Sharma, general secretary, Ropar Thermal Plant Engineer Association, submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner said the real Culprits of theft should be brought to book and no harassment should be made to the S D O by the police. A deputation also met to SSP, Ropar in this connection.
Article extracted from this publication >> Aug 7, 1992
